No more buildings shaped like trousers, bottles or teapots as China attempts
to reclaim “cultural heritage” in its architecture

China has buildings shaped like trousers, teapots and spirit bottles, but “weird” shaped structures are being curbed under tough new planning rules announced by Beijing.

“There is a phenomenon that buildings in cities are attempting to be large, western-orientated and weird,” Xinhua news agency said, in a report detailing the new guidelines.

These “lack of characteristics make people worried about cultural heritage”, added the state news agency.

The new plans call for "applicable, economic, green, and elegant" designs, and follow on from a planning conference held in December by Chinese leaders.

The meeting - the first to address the development of China’s cities for a generation – also saw new rules drawn up to ban gated communities.

The new guidelines follow a widely reported comment from President Xi Jinping in December 2014 criticising China’s “weird architecture”.

The rapid growth of Chinese cities over the last few decades has seen a wave of characteristic urban landmarks being erected.

The headquarters of state broadcaster China Central Television, in central Beijing, is among the most famous. The building, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, is known as the “big trousers” by locals.

Other notable examples of China’s eye-catching modern structures are a tower in the shape of a bottle of spirits in the south-western Sichuan province and a building shaped like a purple clay teapot in the eastern Jiangsu province.